By Guest Blogger: Rosemary Fisher, NP; Founder & President of Momentum in Missions
Emmanuel* is a 67 year old pastor in Zimbabwe who lives out his ministry without any kind of transportation, except for his own two feet. Emmanuel spends up to five and a half hours every single day just walking to deliver the love and hope of the gospel to his surrounding community.
Imagine how many more people could experience the love of Christ through Emmanuel’s ministry if he just had access to a vehicle of some kind?
This is why I started Momentum In Missions: because the gospel is expanding in developing nations, and there is a very real need for support for pastors and evangelists.
Momentum in Missions is helping to advance the Gospel by supporting pastors and missionaries around the world. We achieve this by providing vehicles and bicycles for pastors in developing nations who need mobility to do outreach and evangelism. We also provide financial assistance for church planting and evangelism in developing nations, equip pastors and missionaries with Bibles and evangelism tools (such as Jesus Film mobile projectors), provide micro-loans for income generating projects for pastors in developing nations, and for assistance with projects deemed necessary for reaching people for Christ. There is so much more we do to support the growth of the gospel.
When I met Emmanuel, I knew that if we provided him with a motorbike, he could make better use of his time. Within four months of owning his motorbike, he had planted THREE churches! And now he can freely travel out to them in the bush as often as he needs to.
Mobility is the key to the spread of the Gospel, and once he got mobility, he became unstoppable!
Humble Beginnings
Momentum in MIssions was founded in 2023 after I realized that I needed to gain more momentum in what the Lord was already doing in growing the Kingdom here on earth. A friend recently described the work of Momentum in Missions like a “booster pack” for pastors who are already engaged in evangelism and church planting.
Shortly after serving with Mission Partners For Christ (MPFC) medical mission team in Benin, West Africa, in late 2021, I felt the Lord place a specific call on my life to support pastors and missionaries serving on the mission field.
The Mission Partners For Christ medical team had worked with about 45 African pastors and missionaries during this medical outreach.
Upon our return to the USA, my eyes were opened to the amount of work that lay before these pastors to follow up with evangelism and discipleship to the nearly 2,000 people that we had served during the outreach.
I learned that almost none of the pastors owned a vehicle, and gained understanding of how much time they were spending walking to get from one place to another.
I was also privileged to witness how hungry these villages are for the Gospel and how they desire to have their own church in their village. All of these things require financial resources! It was then that God called me to begin partnering with, and providing assistance, to these pastors.
In early 2022, I began by raising money to purchase motorcycles for these pastors out in the bush. And then the Lord just kept opening doors and giving more and more opportunities to equip these Gospel laborers. As months went on, and the Lord provided more vision and more opportunities, God led me to begin this nonprofit to serve as the vehicle to carry out this impact, and we are now currently supporting Gospel work in 12 countries!
Partnering With Mission Partners For Christ
Momentum in Missions has been partnering with Mission Partner For Christ since day one.
Since I often serve with Sheri Postma, the MPFC founder, on medical teams as a Nurse Practitioner, I have been given the incredible privilege to meet pastors and missionaries in each country that we’ve served. I began to pray and ask God to highlight pastors to me while we are in-country serving, who would benefit from partnership with Momentum in Missions. Over time, God has allowed me to befriend many wonderful pastors and missionaries across Africa.
Sheri has been an incredible friend and mentor to me, in helping to begin in the nonprofit.
Momentum in Missions has been able to partner together with MPFC to provide Bibles, solar audio Bibles, and Lightstream devices to our mission partners when we are serving in Africa.
It has been a blessing to carry these items with us to Africa and present these valuable tools to their teams while we are serving together.
Momentum in Missions and MPFC pair well together because the purpose of the MPFC medical outreaches is to bring Jesus Christ to unreached and unengaged people, and Momentum in Missions can help equip the pastors to do that work after we leave.
One example is our recent trip to Zimbabwe in July 2024. On the third day of our medical outreach, we served in a very remote village where there was a huge response of people opening their hearts to Jesus. Unfortunately, due to this village being so far out in the bush, travel is quite difficult.
The few pastors living in that area are seeing a revival of sorts there now, because of the impact of the medical outreach, and many now want to hear about Jesus and also have a church planted in their village! The pastors want to go door to door doing evangelism, but the distance is time consuming. Motorcycles are also not a practical option in this area due to no access to gas stations or money to maintain a motorcycle.
But God has graciously allowed Momentum in Missions to provide 3 (of 5 needed) bicycles for the pastors in this area to do follow up and more evangelism!
A line of people waiting to be seen at Zimbabwe medical clinic day with MPFC. MIM is assisting the pastors in planting a church here due to so many new believers here from the medical outreach!
Momentum in Missions has also provided Bibles in their native language for these pastors to be able to distribute to the people.
There is a local cult-like religion in this region, and the pastors there have said, “Without putting Bibles in these peoples’ hands, how are they going to learn the TRUTH?”
This is just one example of our partnership and ability to work together after a medical outreach.
MIM purchased this speaker for pastor in Sierra Leone for evangelism
Caring for a patient in Sierra Leone
New church plant construction funded by MiM
New congregation in rural Zimbabwe as a result of the Pastor E receiving motorbike. Over 50 people now attend.
Why This Work Matters
This work is so important for so many reasons.
First, the Bible tells us that the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few (Matt. 9:37), and I believe we must CARE for those who are working bravely and tirelessly to bring people to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.
Second, Romans 10:13-15 says,
“Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”
I believe Christians have two options when it comes to missions: GO or SEND.
Some are called to GO and some are called to SEND.
The people who are called to GO need much support in prayer. There is also a strong need for financial support. Individuals may or may not need this, but the team as a whole will always benefit from financial help.
Without donations, Momentum in Missions would not be able to have the impact that we are having. We solely rely on donations to be able to fund the purchase of motorcycles, fund church plants, and support outreaches and evangelism. And that is in addition to all of the other projects we are funding for the sake of the gospel.
100% of every donation to Momentum in Missions goes directly to support pastors and our projects.
Currently Momentum in Missions is supporting Gospel work in twelve countries: Benin, Dominican Republic, Ethiopia, Egypt, Gambia, Germany, Guinea, India, Sierra Leone, Spain, United States of America, and Zimbabwe. Collectively, through all of our pastors and missionaries, and their teams, in the past year nearly 18,000 people have heard the Gospel and 5,352 people have accepted Christ as their Savior! More than one thousand people have been baptized, two thousand have joined churches, twenty-six new church plants have been started, and twelve motorcycles have been provided.
All thanks to the donations of compassionate believers like you.
Donations also allow Mission Partners For Christ to pursue the work God has called them to. It costs a lot of money to travel, to purchase medications and all other supplies we use during the outreaches. Another thing that MPFC often does, is to place a clean water well or latrine in every village that we serve in. This also costs a lot.
Bibles for pastors in West Africa provided by MiM
Motorcycle purchased by MiM for a pastor
MIM goats- micro-loan income generation for pastors
Giving out soar audio Bibles and Lightstream devices to the Sierra Leone pastors
How You Can Change A Life Through Donations None of this work, through Momentum in Missions or MPFC, would be possible without you.
As the year comes to a close, and you find yourself reflecting on who you want to become in 2025, will you allow me to challenge you to support the gospel work that God is doing through organizations like MPFC and Momentum In Missions?
You have the power to support pastors and missionaries as they share the gospel with unreached and unengaged communities.
You have the opportunity to ensure that underserved villages will have access to healthcare so that they can lead full and productive lives.
You have the privilege of being the one who gets to SEND the called through your financial gifts.
If anyone would like more information, they can visit our website www.momentuminmissions.org. or reach out at info@momentuminmissions.org.
*name changed for privacy reasons
